'Us and them' at ANC conference
2012-12-19 14:52
Feria Haffajee
It has been a sweltering week and it is a long walk to the ANC
plenary tent at the sports fields of the University of the Free State.
It reveals a party of two sets of delegates: the walkers and the
drivers. The walkers foot it, conference back-packs weighed down with
policy documents plotting how to deal with South Africa’s wealth gap.
The policy is a work in progress. Meanwhile, the delegates who are
drivers put foot to the pedal and speed past the walkers. The cars at
the conference are breathtaking.
The driving delegates favour gleaming dark sedans with tinted
windows. The brands in vogue appear to be Land Rover, Porsche and BMW.
When the plenary sessions end, the roads are jam-packed with the
bling wheels. The cars usually belong to Cabinet ministers, “deployed
cadres” like directors-general or executives in parastatals and the
private sector.
The contrast is stark, especially when the shining sedans line up
against the worker delegates’ buses emblazoned with images of President
Jacob Zuma and promising a better life.
At lunch, the comparisons are stark again. The rank and file queue in lines that snake to fetch a simple served lunch.
Not a stone’s throw away is the dining room of the Progressive
Business Forum. It’s baroque, with elevated centrepieces and long
orchids holding their own against the heat. Food is served in courses,
waitrons check if you have a serviette.
You can mingle with the who’s who: I spotted President Jacob Zuma’s
besty, Vivian Reddy, sitting with Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi.
The party’s economic czar, Enoch Godongwana, lunched with the brainy
Joel Netshitenzhe.
Education director-general Bobby Soobrayan was there too, along with a
range of other people I recognised from the socials pages.
The advent of the forum has made more stark the divisions of the ANC into those with money and those without.
The brainchild of former National Party turned ANC members Renier
Schoeman and Darryl Swanepoel, the forum has commodified the time and
expertise of ANC members and sells it to those with money. You can buy
breakfasts, lunches and dinners with Cabinet ministers and ANC leaders.
For more money, you can buy space in the platinum lounge where
networking is helped along with the best single malts and white squishy
leather seats you simply sink into.
I stood and gawped from the outside as a pretty hostess manned an
entrance policy that was, she said, only for a handful of exclusive
delegates. When other delegates wanted a break, I saw them take off
their shoes and sit on the grass.
ANC conferences haven’t always been so “us and them”. I remember a
time when delegates all ate together, walked together and stayed
together.
Now, high-end digs go for R35 000 a day to retire to the sanctuary of
Woodlands Estate and play a round of golf after your round of
electioneering.
Newsfire, the news agency of the Daily Maverick, reported some
delegates had stayed in buses, others on single mattresses in student
dorms.
I saw a few people sprawled exhausted on pavements outside the university entrance, clearly about to sleep the night.
